As far as the books go I don't assume that they will get into book stores on the fact that they are novels with some source material stuffed in the back, I am going off the fact that a normal book store stocks more novels than gaming related books, so a better chance is all.

No offense, but it sounds like you're not familiar with the publishing industry at all. Nearly every RPG ever proposed sees print, whether published by an existing publisher or self-published by a frustrated writer. Fewer than 1% of completed novel manuscripts see the light of day. Having worked in both fields (and in non-fiction), I can tell you that selling 20,000 RPGs is a cakewalk compared to even getting back a personalized rejection letter from an agent or a publisher for a work of fantasy fiction, much less actually publishing one.

Now if you want to self-publish novels for sale though bookstores, you'll find that printing the book is easy, but selling it to bookstores is extremely difficult. They think that if it was any good, you could have interested a publisher. The tiny handful of self-publication success stories are buried underneath mountains of self-published novelists and their garages full of books.

I would have to agree with you Llyod I had intended to self publish the books, as well as rpg through my company. It will be harder to get bookstores to cary the product because it will be such a no name company but in the end I feel it will be able to push primarily a novel, with game related material inspired by the novel in the back.regards, seth

Greetings!I'm new to the forge, this is my first post (and I'm a native french speaker)... so be kind please.Very interesting thread, as I'm working myself on some kind of novel for RPG.Still, there's something I quite don't understand. Regardless as how you sell your product, I don't see how writing a novel and putting some "system" (let's say character sheets) in the back, means you're writing for the RPG ? I don't think novels are structured for role playing, and I'd say textbooks are boring. Anyway, players already use novels (or comics, or movies) to create and elaborate their games. Except, those are not structured for RPG.So, I would imagine some kind of a novel, but still... not one. Something new, written for the RPG. I mean written to be told (repeating myself, but I don't think system defines RPG). Something written in a way that it's "fun" to read but informative too.And yes, I believe you need to be a good writer to do so... and a lot of editing in the way.

I would have to agree with you Llyod I had intended to self publish the books, as well as rpg through my company. It will be harder to get bookstores to cary the product because it will be such a no name company but in the end I feel it will be able to push primarily a novel, with game related material inspired by the novel in the back.regards, seth

You can absolutely pay a printer to put those books on paper. Getting a self-published novel into bookstores is well-nigh impossible, sucks up your time, and soaks up your money.

I think a far better use of your time and effort would be to include some fiction in your RPG for flavor and inspire a talented fiction writer to write a novel set in your RPGs universe. Will it take longer? Yes. Will you lose an element of control, possibly a large one? Yes. Will it sell a thousand times* greater? Probably. Will you still be an indie game designer, as established by Ron's definitions. Yep.

*Not exaggerating much: self-published fiction often sees fewer than 100 copies sold. 10,000 books sold is barely above break-even for a commercial publisher in the book trade, and a lot of published books hit that mark.